Friday, October 5, 2012

Introducing...

Our little girl, Amelia Rayann Bracco was born on June 20th 2012 (the first day of summer) at 6:29 in the morning. She weighed in at 8lbs, 14oz and is an amazing baby!

Now she is 3 months old and we are loving every day together! I'm lucky enough to have a mom who lives 1 mile away and is helping me get back in the studio. I've already re-opened the shop, yay!, and plan to start doing shows again this holiday season. Of course we are taking it slow and only doing a couple to start with. Any potter mommas out there have advice for crafting with a little one? I'm keeping her out of the studio to protect her little lungs so no fear there!

Here we are in our favorite wrap (made by my momma) strolling around the neighborhood.

7 comments:

I'm not a crafting mom but I've logged a whole lot of miles as a crafting dad.I'm very happy to say that critters and clay go very well together. I papoosed my oldest to my back for the first few months. (I think there's a photo of him tucked into his pouch on my back during a bronze pour, I still won't show my mother that one.) Both of my children have grown up in the studio and have learned the rules of the workspace. Luckily there's not many and most of them are for me, like "don't get bent when one of them takes a hammer to a ware board of greenware, or explain anything and everything if they are interested, and keep any rules simple.In the mean time... a wire framed bouncy chair next to the wheel is a fantastic investment.Have fun! Being a parent is the best!!!

Congratulations Shawna! I have an 18 month old and here is a little about my experience:

I did not worry about getting back into the studio too quickly. I just allowed myself to be in the moment with my baby. When I did start working again (around 11 months...) it coincided with longer nap times (she went down to 1 long naps from 2 short ones). A video monitor was really important. My studio is in the basement and bedrooms are on 2nd floor. When I could see that she was still asleep when she was making noises, I could keep working. If it was just an audio monitor, I am sure my time would have been shorter.

When I started working during nap time I would (and still do) make sure that my studio time is top priority. I make sure that I have had lunch before she goes down for a nap. And during that window of time I do not do anything else. No phone calls, no emails, no dinner prep. Just uninterrupted studio time.

Over the past 2 months I started working at night too after she goes to bed a couple times a week. But many times I am too tired. And on weekends while my husband is not working, I try to have longer chunks of time to work. But also still have family time.

The other thing is that I hired someone to work in my studio a few hours a week. She does a lot of the grunt work- cleaning my studio, sieving glazes, sanding pots, etc... So I can focus time in my studio on doing things like actually making pots. I realized that I could hire a babysitter or a studio assistant. And I would rather not hire a babysitter so I could go clean my studio! It's been a really great balance for me.

Thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate it:) It's so nice to hear how other artists manage working and parenting at the same time. I'm sure there is a learning curve and we will figure it out! It will be a fun process!